The free agency period for the 2014 season begins at 4:00pm on Tuesday, March 11th, and the Finsiders have you covered with the top names at each respective position when the market opens.

Today’s preview focuses on the men at the back end of the front seven, and typically the defensive signal callers in the linebackers.

Here is a list of select linebackers who are slated to become unrestricted free agents at the start of the new league year. These players can re-sign with their current teams at any time and can begin to negotiate with other teams beginning on Saturday (3/8).

Jon Beason/OLB/Giants (6-0, 235lbs): The University of Miami product was traded after Week 4 last season from the Panthers to the Giants, Beason became a stabilizing force on a Giants defense that struggled at times, but came on strong late. He played in 12 games last year, starting 11 for the G-Men, making 93 combined tackles. Beason is a three-time Pro-Bowler (2008-2010), and a two-time All Pro(2008,2009). (UPDATE 3/13: Jon Beason has re-signed with the New York Giants.)

Karlos Dansby/ILB/Cardinals (6-4, 250lbs): After being released by Dolphins during the 2013 offseason, Dansby returned to the team that drafted him in the Arizona Cardinals. The 32 year old inside linebacker was a defensive playmaker last year, picking off quarterbacks four times, and was all over the field racking up a combined 122 tackles. (UPDATE 3/12: Karlos Dansby has signed with the Cleveland Browns.)

Erin Henderson/MLB/Vikings (6’3, 244lbs): The 27 year old undrafted veteran out of Maryland will be entering his seventh season in the league, and is coming off of a season in which played in 14 games, and started 12 of them at middle linebacker for Minnesota. He made a total of 112 tackles last year, and also intercepted quarterbacks twice, and sacked them four times. He’s been a rotating starter for the past three season with the Vikings. He does have several off the field issues, as he was arrested twice during the 2013 season, which attributed to him losing his starting job during the year, and eventually being released after the season. He could face additional NFL discipline from the incidents.

D’Qwell Jackson/ILB/Browns (6-0, 240lbs): An eight-year veteran who spent his entire career with the Cleveland Browns, Jackson was released last week. In 2013, Jackson was 7th in the league in combined tackles with 141. A model of consistency for the past three seasons, the 2006 2nd round pick has started in 48 straight games. (UPDATE 3/6: D’Qwell Jackson has agreed to terms with the Indianapolis Colts.)

Perry Riley/ILB/Redskins (6-0, 238lbs): A full-time starter with the Redskins for the second year in a row, Riley may be the long-term replacement for London Fletcher in Washington. If he does move on, he has the numbers to back up being a starter in this league, with 244 total tackles the past two seasons, to go with 6.5 sacks and 15 pass defenses. (UPDATE 3/11: Perry Riley has agreed to terms to remain with the Washington Redskins)

Daryl Smith/ILB/Ravens (6’2, 248lbs): Smith had unbelievably big shoes to fill this year, taking over for soon to be Hall of Famer Ray Lewis, and made 123 combined tackles in his first year in Baltimore. He showed a playmaker gene similar to the Lewis, racking up five sacks, picking off quarterbacks three times, including taking one back for a touchdown. He also forced two fumbles. Smith had previously spent the past nine seasons before last year with the Jacksonville Jaguars. (UPDATE 3/14: Daryl Smith has re-signed with the Baltimore Ravens.)

Brandon Spikes/MLB/Patriots (6’2, 255lbs):More of a two-down run stopping linebacker, the University of Florida product played in all 16 games last season despite a knee injury. He was placed on injured reserve after the regular season, and did not play in the postseason for the Patriots. (UPDATE 3/14: Brandon Spikes has signed with the Buffalo Bills.)

Wesley Woodyard/MLB/Broncos (6’0, 233lbs):Going from a full-time starter to a nickel-package linebacker this season, the man nicknamed “the Lumberjack” was still well respected inside the Denver locker room enough to be one of the team’s captains. Woodyard played in 14 games last season, starting in 10. Woodyard excelled as a coverage linebacker, but found himself on the field less and less as the Broncos made their run at Super Bowl XLVIII. Through six seasons (all with Denver), Woodyard has 434 total tackles, 15 pass defenses, and five interceptions. (UPDATE 3/14: Wesley Woodyard has signed with the Tennessee Titans.)

Please Note:
The opinions, analysis and/or speculation expressed by The Finsiders Blog represent those of individual writers, and unless quoted or clearly labeled as such, do not represent the opinions, policies or desires of the Miami Dolphins organization, front office, coaches and executives. Writers' views are formulated independently from any inside information and/or conversation with Dolphins officials, including the coaches and scouts, unless otherwise noted.

but yeah dude i really hope that we can sign monroe and veldhee! and then go after jarius byrd! because tyhenn our backfield would be the best in the nfl because grimes is one of the best corners in the NFL i would put him at the 4th best in the NFL! THEN TO PUT RESHAD JONES AND BYRD OVER THE TOP AT SAFTEY I MEAN DUDE HAVING THE BEST SAFTEY IN BYRD AND THE 5TH BEST IN JONES THERE AIN’T NOBODY THROWING THE DEEP BALL ON US ANY MORE AND SHOOT IF WE CAN GET TALIB TO MATCH UP WITH GRIMES WE GO TO HAVING THE BEST PASS DEFFENSE IN THE LEAGUE AND NOBODY IS GOING TO THROW 200 YARDS A GAME ON US ITS GOING TO BE LIKE 1970 FOOTBALL UP IN DOLPHINS STADIUM BECAUSE TEAMS ARE GOING TO HAVE TO RUN THE BALL BECAUSE NOBODY IS GOING TO BE ABLE TO THROW ON US EVEN THR BRONCOS THEY WON’T BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING UP IN HERE! LOL

so yes like i said in free agency the dolphins need to sign . Eugene Monroe
2. Jared Veldheer, 3Geoff Schwartz 4,DT Linval Joseph 5, Aqib Talib . 6,Jairus Byrd Now with that said if the dolphins could go out there into free agency and actually be able to hit on every single player and sign them to a big multi year contracts like 5 years across the board on everybody the dolphins would of had hit the jackpot but also they would probly be over the salary cap unless they could work there magic and get every single one of these guys to sign for under 6 million a piece! but let’s get real let’s put these guys in order from top to bottom at who we need the most ok well we need #1 OL, 2ND DT, 3RD CB, 4TH DB! NOW WITH THAT SAID I THINK WE SHOULD GO AFTER MONROE and veldheer first if we can get both of these guys that would be great then we should get geoff shwartz if we could! then i would go after jarius byrd! because not only would we of sign 3 of the best offensive lineman in free agency we would of also got the best saftey in football! and guess what since we already got reshad jones at strong saftey who i think is the 5th best strong saftey in football then to get byrd who i think is the best saftey in the nfl and alot of people will also say that because he is going to be also the highest paid saftey in the nfl after he get’s signed! so to put him and reshad jones next to each other tyhat would be a sick duo and then with grimes at corner and if we could get like a good cb like talib to pair up with grimes or we just draft a cb or hope that one of our own guys steps up like davis or who ever else is on or team because we do have davis our 2nd round pick from last year and a 3rd round pick also so these 2 guys need to step it up in year 2 and that’s what people usually do but who kjnows because they were irelands drafts picks and he drafts bumbs! 80% of the time!

i think the dolphins need to go ahead and go in another direction in free agency i think the dolphins should let solia and starks both walk! because i don’t think either of them are going to be worth the 8+ million they are goin gto want and also the 4+ years they are going to want on there contract! i think the dolphins should just save that 33 million in cap space and use it for the o-line! also the dolphins will have more like around 40+ million once they let dimitri patterson go when they cut or trade him and the same for johnathin martin! so we will have 40 million to spend! and with that said wse should go ahead and get eugene monroe and also branden albert! so the tackle positions are locked up! and then i say we go ahead and draft zach martin to play guard! and then also sign a free agent guard as well so we are all locked up at the oline! so with that said if we do sign monroe and albert that would cost about half of our salary cap because i think they will cost us about 8-10 million a year and i think we should go ahead and lock them up for about 5 years a piece! and then i think the dolphins should also go ahead and resign mike pouncey because after this year he will be a free agent and he is 1 of the top 3 centers in football him his brother and alex mack are the 3 best centers! and if we resign him to like a 6 year deal! we could actually save money on his contract this year! because by resigning him to a big deal we could lower his cap # to the league min at about 600k and give it to him in a signing bonus so we actually would add about 4 million to our salary cap this year because i think he has like a 4-5 million cap number this year!

Personally I would like to see Dion Jordan playing his natural position OLB, we have to find this kid a place on the field. He is great in coverage as we saw him covering Gronk in that NE game, and can become awesome with his speed against the run. With him blitzing from the LB spot, who would the offense block first Cam W, Olivier V or Dion J? Nice problem to have. Move Misi to the MLB spot and Ellerby can be the other OLB. Cut Wheeler, and get Josh Kaddu back for passing situations he and Jordan were teamates at Oregon and have very similar body types and skill sets. The linebackers would then be young and extremely fast, the problems covering TEs and RBs would be a thing of the past. Go phins!!!

Anyone else here think that Wheeler struggled due to the scheme? I believe that the entire defense regressed because of the scheme and the fins need to go back to the 3-4 because the current personnel fit that scheme better. I also believe that the 3-4 better suits athletes like Jordan

I don’t see a problem solver jumping off of the page at me. We need to go younger. If we keep taking these guys that’s been in the league for years, we’re going to have to keep replacing them and doing this all over again every 2 to 3 years. We have young LB’s on our roster that we’ve been grooming to take over. Are we going to use them, or just let them tie up roster spots every year? We’ve had Jonathan Freeny for 2 years, Austin Spitler for 4 years and Jason Trusnik has been in the league for 7 years now. We drafted Jelani Jenkins last year because he was a dynamic player in college. We used him some in spot duty last year, and he did a fine job. Wheeler is owed 10 mil this year, and as I understand it, 6 mil will count against our cap if we cut him. No one will be interested in taking that kind of money off of our hands. Are we going to pay him 10 mil to ride the bench? I would hope not. Lets work some of these younger players into the lineup and next year, we’ll be able to more afford to cut these expensive mistakes. Besides, 1 year is hardly enough time to judge a players ability. With the changes coming this offseason Ellerbee and Wheeler both could have a much better year. Either way, we can hardly afford to keep buying players and let the payroll on the bench surpass the payroll on the field.

it pisses me of off to see Karlos Dansby making such an impact in Arizona in the passing game with 4 int’s? Are you kidding me? The fatass was great in run defense in Miami, but was slow and never picked off a quarterback during his time here. hopefully that was a one year wonder for him

We do need to address our middle linebacker position, moving Ellerbe back to the outside and either getting one of the studs listed above or draft one. However, I think the Dolphins should concentrate on getting Monroe at LT in free agency. I would love to get Mack at center too to replace Pouncey when he gets suspended and move Pouncey to guard when he is playing. I think we can get FA Paul McQuistin as a guard too. Then we don’t have to waste our draft picks on OL and get instant impact players. Like Pryor or Clinton-Dix at Safety.